Great Britons race to world record

Going for gold: led by Bradley Wiggins, the GB quartet celebrate glory in the Men's pursuit final

By Brendan Gallagher

12:01AM GMT 28 Mar 2008

Great Britain's cyclists, who have enjoyed their fair share of halcyon days in recent years, experienced their finest moment to date at the World Track Championships in Manchester yesterday when their men's 4km pursuit team raced to an extraordinary world record in the sport's Blue Riband event and former world champion rower Rebecca Romero became a world track cyclist. Two performances and achievements that will live in the memory.

The British quartet of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas recorded 3min 56.322sec to beat the time the Australians achieved at the Athens Olympics.

It was a stunning performance and warranted the four laps of honour as the crowd made their pleasure known. Britain's performance director, Dave Brailsford, standing on the medal podium in the middle of the track, punched the air and danced a jig. Officially it is medals and not records that his squad covet, but unofficially they have been chasing this one since the start of the millennium.

Not only was it a brilliant ride, it was brave as well. After a less than perfect qualifying heat in which they finished more than a second behind the fast-improving Danish squad, they took the radical decision to change the order of riders for the final, with Manning switching to the No 2 slot and Thomas acting as tail-gunner at No 4.

In such a high-speed technical event, with wheels less than an inch apart while the riders travel and manouvre at 45 miles an hour, only a squad who train together on a daily basis through long winter months could contemplate such a switch in a World Championship final.

It worked beautifully, even though the Danes proved resilient opponents. Indeed, this was the first time in track history that two teams have broken four minutes in the same race. With bronze medallists Australia approaching top form and New Zealand improving with every ride, the scene is set beautifully for Beijing in just over four months' time.

For Wiggins, this was yet another triumph. Tired and sore after winning the individual pursuit on Wednesday evening and a largely sleepless night as he replayed the triumph over and over again in his head, he was nonetheless required in the qualification. Britain always knew they would have to dip under four minutes to qualify and so it proved as Denmark recorded the fastest qualification in history.

"We've been preparing together since January and it's always been about us performing to the best of our ability," said a breathless Wiggins, who has been quietly confident in recent weeks that Britain's squad could produce a special performance before their home crowd.

"That's what gets us across the line first, we don't worry about the other teams. It's about having confidence in what you can do and I knew we were going to produce something super quick."

Wiggins and his team-mates have lived and breathed cycling all their lives, but Romero, who also won a rowing silver in Athens, only took the sport up just over two years ago. Her ability to learn and develop has been remarkable and she has now got her eyes on the gold that eluded her Athens.

In qualifying in the women's individual pursuit, Romero, 27, went around in a scorching 3-29.593 to break the British record that had been broken two minutes earlier by Wendy Houvenaghel - an effort that left her vomiting in the warm-down area. The battling Houvenaghel ultimately finished fourth in the bronze medal race-off, a gutsy performance that enables Britain to field two riders in this event in Beijing. "It's brilliant, I can hardly believe it," Romero said.

There was also an outstanding day's sprinting from Chris Hoy to savour, which culminated in him gaining a place in the semi-finals by defeating reigning world sprint champion Theo Bos in the quarters.

Hoy, a comparative novice to sprinting, was outfoxed in the first of the three-race series but then used all his power and raw pace to defeat the Dutchman in impressive style.